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HomeWorldRohingya: At least 23 dead, 30 missing after boat capsizes

Rohingya: At least 23 dead, 30 missing after boat capsizes

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The bodies of 23 Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state have been recovered after their boat capsized.

Thirty others are still missing, while eight people are reported to have survived the crash.

Survivors said they were trying to reach Malaysia when their boat, carrying more than 50 passengers, capsized and was abandoned by its crew on Sunday.

Every year, thousands of Rohingya attempt the perilous sea journey to Malaysia or Indonesia.

They are fleeing persecution in Myanmar and refugee camps in Bangladesh. A rescue team told JEE News that the dead this week included 13 women and 10 men, all Rohingya Muslims.

Rohingya Muslims are an ethnic minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Many of them fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape a genocidal campaign launched by the Burmese army. Those remaining in Myanmar have also been trying to flee since a military coup in 2021.

Survivors of a boat that sank this week remember being hit by a huge wave near the Rakhine capital of Sittwe.

They say the smugglers, who were paid about $4,000 (£3,153) per person for the trip to Malaysia, then abandoned the boat. The bodies of the victims have been picked up by other boats, or washed ashore.

The long journey across the Andaman Sea in overcrowded fishing boats is always dangerous, but especially so at this time of year, at the height of the monsoon season.

Most of the Rohingya try to cross between the months of October and May.

They are willing to take risks – and often sell their only assets, such as land, to fund the journey – because of the relentlessly dire conditions in which they live in horrendously overcrowded refugee camps on the border with Bangladesh. They are forced to live. , or are subject to discrimination and restrictions on their movement in Myanmar.

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